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Whether or not we expected it, Everything You've Come to Expect has been a long time coming: to be exact, eight whole years since the release of the Last Shadow Puppets' debut album The Age of Understatement. "When someone pointed that out, I was like, 'Fucking hell, we're men now!'" laughs Miles Kane, co-frontman of the Puppets with Alex Turner. "Our balls have dropped."
Owen Pallett, who arranged the strings and horns on The Age of Understatement, had the same thought when he once again reported for Shadow Puppets duty last year. "I had run into Alex at festivals, so I saw him through his sort of longhaired gym-queen look to his current slick rockabilly style," says the Canadian genius and Domino labelmate. "But Miles I hadn't seen at all since he was twenty one. So when I saw him again it was like, 'Oh my god, you're an adult!' It was so shocking to see this guy who'd been like a cheeky schoolboy turn into a guy who literally owned my ass."
Suffice it to say that other obligations came between The Age of Understatement and its sophomore successor, not least the unstoppable rise of Turner's Arctic Monkeys, who released not one but three hugely successful albums between 2008 and 2013. "I wish I had a more flowery answer, but there just wasn't a chance to do a second album before now," Turner says. "The Age of Understatement exceeded our expectations, but it was cut short because it was never assumed that we would take it on the road. And then we had to get back to our other bands." (Kane embarked on a solo career after disbanding his trio the Rascals in the summer of 2009 and subsequently released two albums on Columbia.)
Neither Kane nor Turner ever intended to put the Puppets on the back burner where so many "side projects" languish in perpepuity: the creative outlet that the act offered to the two friends was far too important for that. "The Age of Understatement was the first time I'd looked at lyrics as just another element of the recording, along with the melody and the rest of the music," says Turner. "Before that, every song I'd written had been 'about something' – in inverted commas – and this was the first time I'd started to look at the lyrics more as a component – not putting focus on it but thinking about the shadow it cast on the wall rather than the object itself. It was like dipping a toe in the abstract for the first time."
Just as The Age of Understatement enabled the duo to explore an all-but-forgotten world of epic '60s pop that contrasted starkly with the indie guitar-rock template of the Monkeys and the Rascals, so the second coming of the Shadow Puppets has given Kane and Turner new avenues that veer radically away from their other work. In fact, several of the songs on Everything You've Come to Expect have been germinating ever since the Monkeys finally came off the road after touring the mighty AM in November 2014. "We've been writing these tunes sporadically over the last couple of years," says Turner.
Turner is all too aware that the "story" of Everything You've Come to Expect could be reduced somewhat crassly to the fact that both he and Kane now live in Los Angeles – and that the album was cut at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La studio, the Malibu home to The Band in their Last Waltz heyday. "I'd love for it to be neat and tidy, like 'We're living here so it sounds like this'," he says, "but it's not really like that. When I listen to the album, I think of other cities – London and Paris – as much as I think of LA." Kane concurs: "It wasn't like a big 'Let's make an L.A. record' kind of thing. It was more just, 'Well, we're here, let's do it here.'"
Both men, however, admit that some distinctly American influences did seep into the album's songs, even if they're less detectable than the influences of Scott Walker, John Barry, and Ennio Morricone were on its predecessor. "There were some Todd Rundgren songs, and a Ned Doheny album called Hard Candy," says Turner, who also concedes that recording in his adopted city was the "green juice that softened the edges" of the Puppets' sound at Shangri-La. Another, slightly more improbable influence was that of Paul Weller's Style Council. "I definitely wasn't listening to them when we made the first Puppets record," Turner admits. "With 'Long Hot Summer' there's a sort of shimmery quality to that that we tried to introduce into the sonics of this album, and even melodically."
For Owen Pallett, who this time worked more in situ with the band in the studio, the songs weren't so much American or Californian as simply more open and expansive. "There was a lot more space for my orchestral work," he says. "With the first record we talked about Scott Walker and David Axelrod as reference points for where they wanted the orchestrations to go. With this record I asked if they had any new reference points and they said, 'Have you heard of a record called The Age of Understatement?' So I was kind of pulling from my own private sources." One of those turned out to be a classic of orchestral soul by Isaac Hayes, scored in 1969 by Detroit arranger Johnny Allen. "There were a couple of songs we were kind of struggling with," Pallett says, "so one night we listened to Hot Buttered Soul and then went back and rewrote a couple of the arrangements."
"I think working next door from us led Owen to different conclusions than last time, when we didn't have that luxury," says Turner. "He wanted to do less than he'd done before. He's an incredible talent. We'd just wind him up and let him go."
What strikes one on initial exposure to Everything You've Come to Expect is that it wears its influences less obviously on its sleeve. While the Puppets' sound remains anchored in ferry-'cross-the-Merseybeat sweep and romance – in the lost pop world of Brylcreemed Billy Fury – their new songs take us into the realm of Curt Boettcher (the title track's bittersweet sunshine pop) and Roy Orbison (the bolero-driven croonerama of 'Sweet Dreams, TN'). If lead single 'Bad Habits' is jaggedly snarling, 'Miracle Aligner' and 'Dracula Teeth' are seductive and melodically pining.
"I think what makes this record slightly different is that me and Al have found our voices more from when we did our first one," says Miles Kane. "Obviously we've done more singing in that time, so we'd each sort of sit back and let the other one do his bit on the right songs. Like on 'Sweet Dreams', I think Al's vocals are unbelievable, the way he soars on it and the way he croons. Whereas I can deliver the slightly punkier things like 'Bad Habits', I find that easier. But then you have that middle ground of songs like 'Used to Be My Girl' and 'Aviation' between those bookends. With the close harmonies on, say, 'Dracula Teeth' and 'Element of Surprise', they sort of blend into each other, so on those more sparkly tunes that was a new thing that developed for me – to make beautiful, sexy vocals."
"I love the first record, but I can't even compare it to this new one," says Owen Pallett. "This one takes far more chances, and the stylistic detours don't feel quite so out of step. There are many more interesting turns and twists. Lyrically there's a lot more depth to it." Pallett won't resort to rock-critical tropes of "maturity" and "growing up", preferring to see Everything You've Come to Expect in the context of change. "People like Alex and Miles – are always flipping the script, never trying to go back and make the same record."
"How important is it to be looking over your shoulder?" says Turner. "Is it not more exciting, rather than trying to hold on to something – or to someone's perception of something – to let that go and explore what's in front of you, regardless of the green juice and the palm trees?"
For Owen Pallett, the Last Shadow Puppets remain a kind of "vacation home" for Kane and Turner, a place where – in collaboration with bassist Zach Dawes and drummer/producer James Ford – they can "cut loose a little bit and just have fun".
"The whole point of The Age of Understatement was that there was no agenda," reflects Kane. "We didn't even know whether we'd put an album out. It's different now, because we've both done things and obviously know about the Puppets. Yet we're still best friends and that's still the root of it, really. That's the buzz of it."
Barney Hoskyns
- The Last Shadow Puppets release The Dream Synopsis EP December 2nd
- The Last Shadow Puppets share video for 'Miracle Aligner'
- The Last Shadow Puppets announce new single 'Aviation', watch the video now
- The Last Shadow Puppets announce live dates, new album Everything You've Come To Expect release 1st April 2016
- The Last Shadow Puppets to release new album Everything You've Come To Expect, 1st April 2016
- The Last Shadow Puppets share Bad Habits
- The Last Shadow Puppets win Best Video at last night's NME Awards
- Vote Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, The Kills and The Last Shadow Puppets for MTV EMA
- View the Video for 'My Mistakes Were Made For You'
This artist shares a member with Arctic Monkeys.


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Vitra Design Museum + Vitra Schaudepot17,00 € / 15,00 €*Vitra Design Museum 11,00 € / 9,00 €*Vitra Schaudepot8,00 € / 6,00 €*Architecture tour 2h14,00 € / 10,00 €* Guided tours 1h (Exhibition tour, Production tour or Behind the Scenes)7,00 € / 5,00 €**Reduced prices: young people from age 12, students, seniors,disabled persons, groups of more than 10 people, combination of 3 and more tickets/person, children under 12 years of age free
Vitra Design MuseumCharles-Eames-Str. 2D-79576 Weil am RheinT +49.7621.702.3200F +firstname.lastname@example.com
From 11 May 2020Daily: Noon - 5 pm. The museum is open on all Sundays and public holidays.On 24 December the museum isopen 10 am – 2 pm.
Buy online here
Watch here
Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors
08.02.2020 – 28.02.2021Vitra Design MuseumGae Aulenti: A Creative Universe
29.02.2020 – 18.04.2021Vitra SchaudepotTypology: An Ongoing Study of Everyday Items
07.12.2019 – 24.01.2021Vitra Design Museum GalleryThe Vitra Design Museum Collection – 1800 to the Present
Permanent exhibitionVitra Schaudepot
Objects of Desire
27.02.2020 – 27.09.2020CaixaForumBarcelona, Spain
Balkrishna DoshiArchitecture for the People
09.09.2020 – 12.12.2020Wrightwood 659Chicago, USA
Hello, Robot
25.09.2020 – 03.01.2021Neues Museum BielBiel, Switzerland
Victor PapanekThe Politics of Design
17.10.2020 – 07-02-2021Design Museum Den BoschDen Bosch, Netherlands
All exhibitions
The collection of the Vitra Design Museum ranks among the most important holdings of furniture design worldwide. It contains some 7000 pieces of furniture, a vast assemblage of lighting objects and numerous archives, as well as the Collection of the Eames Office, or the estates of Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. On 4 June 2016 the Vitra Schaudepot was opened, created by the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, in which the Vitra Design Museum presents key pieces of its collection.
Vitra Design Museum + Vitra Schaudepot17,00 € / 15,00 €*Vitra Design Museum 11,00 € / 9,00 €*Vitra Schaudepot8,00 € / 6,00 €*Architecture tour 2h14,00 € / 10,00 €*Guided tours 1h (Exhibition tour, Production tour or Behind the Scenes)7,00 € / 5,00 €**Reduced prices: young people from age 12, students, seniors,disabled persons, groups of more than 10 people, combination of 3 and more tickets/person, children under 12 years of age free
Vitra Design MuseumCharles-Eames-Str. 2D-79576 Weil am RheinT +49.7621.702.3200F +firstname.lastname@example.com
From 11 May 2020Daily: Noon – 7 pm. The museum is open on all Sundays and public holidays.On 24 December the museum isopen 10 am – 2 pm.
Vitra Design MuseumWith the exhibition »Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design«, running from 29 September 2018 to 10 March 2019, the Vitra Design Museum will present the first large retrospective focussing on the designer, author, and activist Victor J. Papanek (1923–1998). Papanek was one of the twentieth century's most influential pioneers of a socially and ecologically oriented approach to design beginning in the 1960s. His key work, »Design for the Real World« (1971), remains the most widely read book about design ever published. In it, Papanek makes a plea for inclusion, social justice, and sustainability – themes of greater relevance for today's design than ever before. The exhibition includes high-value exhibits such as drawings, objects, films, manuscripts, and prints, some of which have never before been presented. These are complemented by works of Papanek's contemporaries from the 1960s to 1980s, including George Nelson, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan, or the radical design initiative »Global Tools«. Contemporary works from the areas of critical and social design provide insight into Papanek's lasting impact.Faced with Nazi persecution in Austria, Papanek escaped to the United States in 1939. After pursuing a career as an industrial designer, during the 1960s he developed a critique of consumerism that would make him well known around the world. This position is also reflected in his designs, which he often developed together with his students or collaborators, including televisions and radios for African countries, electric vehicles, as well as the »Fingermajig«, an object designed to stimulate the sense of touch (1965–1970), and the »Living Cubes« series (1973), user-assembled furniture that could be modified to meet different needs.Papanek's true impact, however, is to be found in his work as an author and arbiter of a new and critical understanding of design. He lectured in universities around the world, inspiring generations of students, and tirelessly promoted a wider social debate about design. For example, beginning in 1961 he moderated a television series about design that was broadcast throughout the USA. Alongside his »Design for the Real World«, which has been translated into over twenty languages, additional books such as »How Things Don't Work« (1977) or »Design for Human Scale« (1983) cemented his reputation as a pioneer of alternative design. In them he used pointed language and humour to criticize a blind belief in consumerism and adapt the ideas of the generation of 1968 to address practical issues of everyday life for a great number of people.»Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design« is organized into four sections offering an in-depth look at Papanek's life and work. The exhibition begins with an introductory, large-format media installation presenting the designer's ideas in a contemporary context and follows with a biographical overview tracing Papanek's life from his escape from Europe to his international success. For the first time, organizers were able to draw upon materials of the Papanek estate held by the Papanek Foundation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, which includes a number of documents that have never been exhibited, including notebooks, letters, furniture, pieces from Papanek's collection of ethnological objects, as well as over thousands slides that the designer used for his lectures.Two other sections focus on the main themes of Papanek's work, including his fundamental criticism of consumerism and his engagement with social minorities, his commitment to the needs of what was then known as the »Third World«, ecology, sustainability, and »making« culture – creation and production using one's own resources – which had its origins in the 1960s do-it-yourself movement. Visitors can also view a wealth of designs by Papanek, his students, and other collaborators, including those by the Danish designer Susanne Koefoed, who as a student of Papanek developed the first International Symbol of Access in 1968.The exhibition is supplemented with around twenty carefully selected contemporary works that transport Papanek's ideas into the twenty-first century by designers including Catherine Sarah Young, Forensic Architecture, Jim Chuchu, Tomás Saraceno, Gabriel Ann Maher, or the Brazilian collective Flui Coletivo and Questtonó. They, too, deal with complex themes such as global climate change, fluid gender identities, consumer behaviour, or the economic realities of migration, meaning they reflect the continuing resonance of the questions Papanek was already addressing in the 1960s. At the same time, they break out of the white, Western, and male-dominated world to which Papanek was bound despite all his efforts to the contrary.»Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design« is thus both a retrospective as well as a themed exhibition. By focusing on Papanek the person, we can better understand a larger theme, namely the significance of design as a political tool. After all, what was revolutionary for Papanek's time is now generally accepted: design is not only about giving form to something; it is a tool for political transformation that must consider social and ethical points of view. This is reflected by the fact that today's debates over themes such as social design and design thinking draw upon Papanek's ideas as a matter of course. The exhibition seeks to rediscover Papanek as a pioneer of these debates – and as one of design's greatest forward thinkers – for the twenty-first century. At the same time, it examines how Papanek's socially engaged design is changing our world today – as well as how it can make the world a better one.You can find the accompanying programme of the exhibition here.#VDMPapanekThis exhibition is a cooperation between the Vitra Design Museum and the Barcelona Design Museum, in collaboration with the Victor J. Papanek Foundation, University of Applied Arts Vienna, and is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.Global Partner: VolkswagenSponsor: Geberit

subset: commoncrawl


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I've been dogfooding my VHDL compiler for a project at work and now that it's gotten to the point where it can simulate non-trivial designs, compile times are becoming significant. Especially when files use Xilinx primitives as the vcomponents library takes a while to load. At the moment I'm re-analysing every source file for each […]
Archives for 2013
Gotta Catch Them All
After a hiatus of over 20 years I got another Pirate Lego set for Christmas! My parents tracked down from eBay the one set I was missing from the 1989/90 Pirate range, 6270 "Forbidden Island". Got all the bits and the original instructions! Flag was a bit borked by I replaced it with a spare […]
Winter Wander
I went for another adventure today from Farnham Common near Slough to West Drayton just inside the M25. You might recall I've been roughly this way on several previous adventures. A really nice sunny day despite the pessimistic weather forecast. A lot of the photos below are from Stoke Common a really lovely area of […]
Impeccable Timing
This evening I went running for exactly 41 minutes 41 seconds and 41 hundredths of a second.
Compressed Air
Ah, the humble can of compressed air: is there any problem it can't solve? Just now with his sidekick Henry he managed to repair my dead CPU fan!
New Lunar Lander Version
Almost a year since I released the last one, there's a new lander-0.6.5.tar.gz package available. Nothing exciting: just fixing bit rot and some FreeBSD build fixes Dmitry Marakasov. Glad someone's using it! 🙂
I saw some pretty red berries when I was out adventuring near Marlow today. Probably highly toxic. Really lovely winter morning today: cold and a sunny and muddy. I saw a robin which must mean it's nearly Christmas! 😀
I Went exploring in Wantage, Oxfordshire today. It's a nice little market town that's apparently the birth place of Alfred the Great. The local museum was unexpectedly brilliant. My favourite bit was this replica of a Wantage tram carriage complete with dead mice: Predictably everything hereabouts is named after Alfred. Here's King Alfred's school which […]
VHDL Code Coverage
I recently added a code coverage option to the VHDL compiler, nvc, I'm working on. I tend to find code coverage a really useful tool when I'm writing RTL, especially the sort of control-dominated designs I do in my day job. I find Modelsim's HTML coverage reports a bit frustrating so I'm trying to do […]
Henley to Oxford (Almost)
Walking from Henley to Oxford has been something I wanted to try for ages, so having a day off this Tuesday I thought I'd give it a go. It's about 25 or so miles if you take the scenic route. Unfortunately I think this should have been a summer project as despite setting off at […]


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December 18, 2019 to December 19, 2019
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
CMHA Halton Region Branch
1540 Cornwall Road
Oakville, Ontario
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Mental Health First Aid Adults Who Interact With Youth is a two-day, basic-level interactive course that teaches people with limited or no mental health knowledge how to help youth age 12 to 24 who are showing signs of a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis.
Topics include:
- Signs and symptoms of mental health problems and crisis situations
- A basic model to provide Mental Health First Aid
- Information about how to help in a crisis
- Encouraging a person to identify options for help
The 2-day Mental Health First Aid Adults Who Interact With Youth course discusses substance-related disorders, mood-related disorders, deliberate self-injury, anxiety and trauma-related disorders, eating disorders, and psychotic disorders.
Location: 1540 Cornwall Road, Oakville. Follow the signs for CMHA.
Time: 8:30 am to 5:00 pm each day
Cost: $175 per person, $150 per student/senior
While we do not provide refunds once a payment is made, you may transfer your registration to another course within one year, to a maximum of two attempts at re-registration.


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Series boasts 4M units sold
RedLynx is finally returning to PC after a well-received stint on Xbox Live Arcade with Trials HD and Trials Evolution. On March 21, 2013, Trials Evolution: Gold Edition -- which includes all tracks from the prior title recreated in the latter's engine, in addition to the full game of Evolution itself -- will see a PC release.
I enjoy Trials quite a bit, and so do many of you, but 4 million units sold for the series? Who knew so many people were willing to take that kind of punishment? I'd love to see completion data; for instance, the percentage of players who cleared all tracks. Maybe then I'd feel better about my own (in)ability.


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Meteorology Major Advising - FAQ
Q: Where can I find the prerequisites for Meteorology and Climate Science courses?
On the four-year roadmaps page, you can click on each class to see the prerequisites.
Q: What classes should I take during my first year at SJSU?
In terms of Meteorology, plan on taking Metr 10 (Weather and Climate) in the first semester you are here. If you are taking the Concentration in Climate Science, then instead plan on taking Metr 12 (Global Warming: Science and Solutions) in your first semester. For all students, also plan on taking Metr 40 (Weather Seminar) in the first Spring semester. It is also important that all students take the highest Math course you can get into after taking the Entry Level Mathematics exam. Once you complete Math 30 (or 30P), you can start taking the required Physics sequence.
Please consult the four-year roadmap for details.
Q: I've just now entered SJSU, but am taking Math 19 (pre calculus) my first semester. Does this mean I won't graduate in four years according to the roadmap?
Graduating in four years is not that common for most majors at SJSU, but it is certainly possible if that is your primary aim. For us, we want out students to be successful in their professional lives. So, in many cases, we encourage our students to take fewer classes per semester - and thus get better grades! That said, there are also times when a summer class may enable a student to 'catch up' so that they are on track to take Metr 60 in the Fall and Metr 61 or Metr 71 in the Spring. Check the roadmap and consult with your advisor should you have further questions.
Q: Is there any particular order to taking my General Education (GE) courses?
On the roadmap, we've suggested when you take your GE courses, but it's really up to you. The university suggests that you take your writing courses early, and we agree. However, for other courses, pick and choose what seems the most interesting at the time. If the load seems too high during a particular semester, then consider dropping a GE course and maybe taking that class during a summer or winter session. We no longer recommend that our entering freshmen take Sci 2 - take a GE class in the same category instead.
Q: Are Meteorology and Climate Science students exempt from some GE requirements?
Partially - our students do not have to take any Area B GE courses (which saves 9 units!) because of the math and physics prerequisites we have.
Q: How many hours per week should I expect to study? I need to adjust my work hours.
Be advised that - in our opinion - if you are working more than about 15-20 hours per week, it may be difficult to successfully manage a full-time load (in any major!), even during the first two years. Our program is challenging, and for students working a lot of hours, they often simply find the total workload too much. Although everybody is different in their ability to manage workloads, we suggest that students give themselves a chance to succeed by making their studies their top priority, and by working the fewest number of hours possible. Note that many of our Juniors and Seniors work in the department either grading papers, in computing jobs, or working directly with faculty on research projects. These jobs are typically flexible and allow students further education and experience.
Q: Why are there so many Math and Physics classes as prerequisites?
The fields of meteorology and climate science are math and physics-based sciences, and to really begin to develop a foundation for understanding how the atmosphere works, you need to develop various skills in math and physics. We believe that these skills will serve you well in advancing your understanding of meteorology and climate science, and in preparing you for your future career. The National Weather Service also feels this way, and - with one exception - our BS-Meteorology is designed to satisfy their requirements; the exception is that the NWS requires a class in Ordinary Differential Equations, and we no longer require this. Students wishing to pursue a job with the NWS should be sure to take this class (it can substitute as an elective, with the consent of the advisor). Students who are in the Climate Science Concentration and who are considering pursuing an advanced technical degree may also consider taking additional math courses.
Q: What is the hardest part of the major?
For many of our students, the biggest challenge will be getting through the first two years. It is during this time that students take many of their math and physics classes, and these can be a lot of work. However, once students get into their junior year in the program, almost all succeed in obtaining their BS degree. This is not to say that the junior/senior years are easy, but in our small classroom environment, students generally succeed by working closely with faculty and other students.
Q: What classes should I take before transferring from a community college?
For the BS in Meteorology: As the four-year roadmap indicates, the first two years in Meteorology concentrate on developing the skills required for an in-depth study of meteorology. These courses include three semesters of calculus (Math 30/31/32), three semesters of physics (Phys 50/51/52), one semester of chemistry (Chem 1), and two computing classes (Metr 50/51). In principle, all these classes can be completed before you arrive at SJSU. The lower division classes that you can only take at SJSU are Meteorology I (Metr 60) and Meteorology II (Metr 61). These are gateway classes into the junior and senior years, and need to be taken here at SJSU.
If your Community College advisor tells you to focus only on completion of all your GE classes before SJSU - ignore them! You MUST get started on your Math classes - this is your top priority! After your first calculus course is completed, get started on Physics.
For the BS in Meteorology, Concentration in Climate Science: As the four-year roadmap indicates, the first two years concentrate on developing the skills required for an in-depth study of climate science. These courses include: one semester of calculus (Math 30); two semesters of physics (Phys 2A/2B); one semester of chemistry (Chem 1A); one semester of biology (Biol 1A); and two computing classes (Met 50/51). In principle, all these classes can be completed before you arrive. The lower division classes that you can only take at SJSU are Meteorology I (Metr 60) and Introduction to Climate Science (Metr 71). These are gateway classes into the junior and senior years and need to be taken here at SJSU.
Q: I plan to transfer to the Meteorology program from a community college.
Are there any special considerations when transferring?
Good question. At a community (or 4-year) college you can take most of
your first two year requirements including calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology (Climate Science concentration). You may also be able to take an equivalent to Weather and Climate (Metr 10). However, there are other classes we require our sophomores to take, including one year of programming (our Metr 50/51) and the year-long Introduction to Meteorology sequence (Metr 60/61 for Met majors, and 60/71 for Climate Science majors) that you'll have to plan for. Meteorology I and II (Metr 60/61, or 71 for the Climate Science concentration) are quantitative introductions to the science, and include math and physics, together with a great lab in the fall class (Metr 60). These are not currently offered elsewhere in the CSU or Community College systems. These courses also prepare students for all junior/senior meteorology courses, so you do need to take these before any upper division courses. The best outcome is to take some of your math/physics elsewhere, and then transfer into SJSU in the sophomore year, so you can take Metr 50/51/60/61 (or 71) when you arrive.
Q: I would really like to study Meteorology because it's something I really find interesting; however, I'm concerned about all the math and physics required. How do I know if this the right major for me?
This is a good question. Meteorology is based on math and physics, and many of our junior and senior level courses are theory-based and require this background to understand the fundamentals of how the atmosphere works. However, while a strong background in math/physics is great, it does not necessarily mean one would make a good forecaster, for example. In fact, some of our top forecasters and our most successful alumni struggled with their math and physics. As for "Is this the right major for you?" I'd say, "Follow what interests you, and if it's Meteorology, then go for it!" However, be prepared to study hard to succeed in this rewarding field.
San Jose State University Department of Meteorology, Duncan Hall 620
Phone: 408.924.5200 Email: email@example.com


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Lumpectomy Los Angeles
Lumpectomy Los Angeles
Based on certain characteristics about a woman's breast cancer, she may be a candidate for lumpectomy, where the known cancer is removed surgically in addition to a margin of normal tissue around the cancer. The procedure often involves placement of a guide wire by a radiologist the day of surgery to help show the exact area where the tumor needs to be removed. Depending on the situation, lumpectomy may be done with axillary lymph node dissection, which involves removal of some of the lymph nodes under the arm to assess for cancer.
Lumpectomy can be performed alone or in conjunction with reconstruction, where the breast tissue is reshaped at the time of lumpectomy to make the breast shape look more normal. Sometimes this reshaping involves either a breast reduction or a breast lift, which is often done in both breasts so the breasts look symmetric.


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MPD says officer-involved shootings down in 2012
The Milwaukee Police Department said the number of officer-involved shootings is down by almost half.
Police administrators presented their annual review to members of the Fire and Police Commission on Thursday night.
They said officer-involved shootings are down from 15 in 2011 to eight last year.
"We've invested a significant amount of effort in training our police officers in making good decisions in the field, making decisions based on encounters they're facing, and I think that the outcomes of our recent training has proven it's been effective," Milwaukee police Assistant Chief James Harpole said.
Harpole said the department is also working on ways to address the number of animals shot by police.
Twenty-eight dogs were killed by police last year, which is a 40 percent increase from 2011.


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Last month I had the pleasure of attending a talk by David Yetman, discussing a program developed at Memorial University that works to "mobilize knowledge" between the university and outside interests. The program acts as a liaison of sorts, between interested community members and interested researchers. It's an open door for communities to invite researchers to participate in questions relevant to them.
The program is interdisciplinary and completely voluntary. Yetman admitted that collaboration between faculty members and administration is a tricky thing, and that for this reason the program members actively sought out responsive members in the faculty, and worked with them, rather than trying to change the minds of those uninterested in collaborative research projects.
The project staff, "knowledge mobilization officers" work as a kind of knowledge broker – in many ways facilitating the business side of research, helping find funding, but also facilitate ways to disseminate research in ways appropriate to the project (perhaps pointing to the need for multiple styles of research publication, in that the standard journal publication may not be what is needed).
They have also been developing a search engine/database for research projects community members are interested in. The database provides researchers and community members a way to connect. The database would allow researchers to look for relevant research questions, and link them to members of the community that would help with it. He mentioned the need for "finding audiences" for academic research, and that "80% of what we do is building relationships".
Pushing the business angle did cause my anthropological ears to ring a little. The "benefit to society" thing has been done to death in my readings for this project, and while increased collaboration was argued to benefit society, Yetman also said that knowledge mobilization officers "do not pass judgment on the type of project", but that an ethics guideline was in the works.
I asked if knowledge mobilization officers, being interested in "finding audiences", advocated Open Access publication of research – and I was disappointed to learn the program had not yet explored Open Access Publishing (and even though the program is small, and just starting, I still choke swallowing this one…). I promised myself I'd check back with them down the road to see if information on Open Access Publishing couldn't be provided by the knowledge mobilization officers as standard practice. [just editing this, and again, how do you talk about mobilizing knowledge, and ignore Open Access? uggh!] [thinking more on it, I think Yetman comes from a medical research background, and I have no idea how well received open access publishing is in that area]
Looking at the relationship between academia and surrounding communities, and having this opportunity to see it more generally through multiple disciplines, I appreciate ethnography more. Not so much the value of ethnography as a "scientific method", but the lessons one can learn looking at anthropology's often brutal relationship with people/communities/states [things that make you go "hmm…"]. I asked Yetman how disputes would be settled between researchers and community members inviting research – what happens when the research doesn't go as planned? Yetman admitted this was a challenge, but he felt that the knowledge mobilization officer, while not responsible for such a situation, would still be able to lend a hand. He said in no way would the knowledge mobilization officer, nor the community member inviting the research, have any control over the research output.
I also asked about Minerva style funding, and how interests could be balanced out – if at all. He said that many researchers would be interested in military funding, and admitted that large-scale funding could be an issue if it were let to dominate research agendas. Here exists the problem of promoting collaboration without judging "good or bad". Ie: in the article linked at the bottom of this post, it discusses knowledge mobilization as coming from technology transfer, which involves patents, and making profit. So maybe this program will end up promoting the "closed" side of the intellectual property debate.)
Even if it ignores ethical issues, steps around research responsibility, and hasn't yet figured out how important open access publishing is, it does do one thing that I like – it opens a door for people to approach the university with their questions and concerns.
While a liaison can help on the community side, I still think anthropologists have the right idea building collaboration into the research methods, and to facilitating the collaboration themselves. Ie: do we need a special database to find relevant research questions, when we have the internet, or live in a local community? Are these issues not constantly being discussed in the news, on blogs, and on youtube? Yes, at least with online ethnography. A knowledge mobilization office could help researchers get their feet into the community however, and help local organizations advertise their issues and interests.
I would have kept the questions pouring, but few others were participating so I shut up and talked to him when the talk finished. I explained my interest in "sharing knowledge" and Open Access, and when I told him I was in the anthropology program he told me he always got a great response from anthropologists, who he said expressed more interested in community collaboration. During the talk he also mentioned how the program was new, but tried to incorporate what it could from participatory research methods that have been developing in anthropology and other disciplines. [he mentioned proactive and reactive strategies, community workshops hosted in different areas in the region]
One audience member inquired about measuring and quantifying the success of such collaborations – Yetman replied that was a challenge, but that qualitative assessments seemed to work pretty well.
Here is an article discussing some of the projects successes and strategies:
"Putting Knowledge Into Practice"
[on the first round writing this, I used the word "interested" about 20 times. ]


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Trackside Dining
22 March
Enjoy the ultimate race event experience with the best seats in the house overlooking the track.
Perfect for entertaining clients, work functions, social club gatherings or just an excuse to catch up with friends and family. There are three Trackside Dining packages to choose from; Silver, Gold and Platinum.
For further information click here
Start time: Fri 5:30 pm
Venue: Terror To Love Lounge


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Nova is AL Pitcher of the Month
Yankees right-hander goes 4-0, records first career complete-game shutout in August
Yankees starter Ivan Nova's perfect August has earned him American League Pitcher of the Month honors.
The right-hander went 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA, one complete-game shutout, 12 walks and 31 strikeouts over 43 1/3 innings in six starts to earn his first career monthly award on Wednesday. He's the first Yankee to win the honor since CC Sabathia in July 2011.
Among league leaders for the month, Nova finished first in ERA (minimum 27 innings), was tied for first in wins and starts and tied for third in innings pitched. Opponents hit .250 against him, and he allowed just one home run -- the fewest allowed per nine innings in the AL during the month.
Nova held the Padres to four hits, while striking out eight, over seven shutout innings on Aug. 3. He then limited the first-place Tigers to one run on eight hits while striking out seven over seven innings, getting no decision, on Aug. 9.
He beat the Angels on Aug. 14, becoming the first Yankee to throw at least seven innings and allow three or fewer earned runs over seven straight starts -- a run that began on July 5 -- since Sabathia in 2011. Nova was the first Yankees right-hander to accomplish that feat since David Cone, who had seven straight such starts in 1998.
Nova capped his stellar month with his first career shutout on Saturday, surrendering three hits and one walk against five strikeouts in a 2-0 win against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.


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Evangelism and telling others about your faith is a critical part of spreading the Gospel of Jesus. Find the perfect Christian books and resources below to help you talk about your faith and evangelize.
In order to serve you better and ensure that you will get Canadian tax receipts for donations and the best shipping rates for purchases, please visit our Canadian store.Yes, take me to the Canadian site Continue to the U.S. Site
Thank you for your support!


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Downtown has residences to suit any style and stage in life.
Downtown offers the best of Austin, amplified. This is where creativity and ingenuity meet to deliver the latest foodie hotspots, legendary live music venues, one-of-a-kind shops, and year-round outdoor fun. Rock out or relax – it's your call. LET'S GO
Downtown is the epicenter of Austin's 24/7 idea exchange. This is where enterprises headquarter and entrepreneurs incubate, all harnessing our city's incredible talent pool, business-friendly infrastructure and uniquely collaborative culture. LET'S GO
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Moving On Up.
Downtown has residences to suit any style and stage in life.


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Big changes could be coming to Tumblr now that Yahoo! has acquired the social blogging platform for a cool $1.1 billion. At TIME, we're pretty big fans of Tumblr, so we've rounded up a look back at some of the best sites that have caught our attention in the past year, beginning with the most recent:
(MORE: Yahoo!-Tumblr: It's Not What You Buy, It's What You Do With It)
Cosmarxpolitan: This clever little gem "riffs on the notoriously over-the-top cover lines and headlines found in Cosmo, translating them into a handy guidebook for the average Bolshevik babe … The impressive number of historical references and the expert recreation of Cosmo's tone earn the blog high Marx." — Samantha Grossman
Texts from Superheroes: "Meet Texts from Superheroes, a Tumblr devoted to the SMS exploits of spandex-attired demigods. Who knew warrantless wiretapping could pay such dividends?" — Matt Peckham
Sports Balls Replaced With Cats: This one "mashes some of the best scroll-worthy subjects on the internet — small furry animals and extraordinarily fit humans — and singlehandedly fills in that gap of mutual exclusivity between sports lovers and cat lovers." — Mackenzie Yang
Google Street Scene: This innovative Tumblr "takes screenshots from movies and reimagines them as if they'd been captured by Google Street View. But finding the right scenes — and gently doctoring them — is harder than it seems." — Samantha Grossman
Your LL Bean Boyfriend: Presenting "the illustrated crush list of born-and-bred Mainer Liz Pride, a recent college graduate who fused her love for romance novel parodies, L.L. Bean and men, into a rapidly-growing Tumblr … It's part part daydream, part Porn for Women, and all easy on the eyes." — Terri Pous
Dogshaming: "Is there anything better than publicly shaming someone who deserves it and won't even be embarrassed? If the answer is no, then say hello to Dogshaming, a new Tumblr that's become the latest form of ineffective punishment for misbehavin' canines." — Terri Pous
Bon Iver Erotic Stories: "The blog — boniverotica for short — couples pictures of the artist in full sensitive-beefcake mode with outdoorsy, naughty, hilarious fantasies of what life would be like as Bon Iver's lover." — Courtney Subramanian


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Light Rye, Caraway, and Emulsified Raisin Yeast Water Loaf
Light Rye, Caraway, and Emulsified Raisin
Yeast Water Loaf
Updated: 110615-1100 Added Summary Table of the 3 loaves at the very end of this blog
For the initial two loaves,
see these link:s:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23945/emulsified-raisin-yeast-water-loaf [1]
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24010/replication-bake-emulsified-raisin-yeast-water-loaf [2]
This loaf combined light rye flour and caraway seed with emulsified raisins in the Raisin Yeast Water (RYW). I also made the overall development come very close to the initial loaf's 105 hour development timing, about 106 hours. However, rather than a 45+ hours final dough retard the major retardation was done with the Build-#3 of the 3-build RYW Levain.
This loaf, was baked primarily to test two points: Firstly, was the prolonged final rise a result of the newness of the culture in the initial loaf's levain, or was it the extended retardation periods that most caused the slower final rise? Secondly, how well would the emulsified RYW flavors work when combined with rye flour (and caraway seed, of course) ?
Oven spring was comparable to both previous emulsified RYW loaves, as was the darkness of crust - although, the longer development loaves (this and the first) may have a slightly darker crust, but if so, it is marginally so.
The two longer development loaves also did develop a more full bodied flavor, but even the short development loaf (second loaf) had an above average flavor – at least in my opinion.
The first and (this) last loaf had development times of 105 and 106 hours, respectively, from start of Build-#1 of the 3-build levain to the dough entering the oven, while the second shorter development loaf was developed over 28½ hours. The long cycled loaves took 10 and 9 hours respectively for final rise, while the short cycle only took 6¼ hours for final rise. Thus, I conclude that the culture's age had little, or nothing to do with the longer rise time, and that extended retardation, be it in the levain builds, or in the final dough, caused the observed increase in final rise's time that were observed.
The crumb texture, moistness, and flavor of this final loaf were judged by me to be very good. The Rye and Caraway certainly did nothing to decrease my pleasure with the loaf.
When I next make this combination, I will likely increase the percentage of rye flour and maintain the caraway seed at the 2 B% used here.
These next links are to 3 baking logs in PDF format for this loaf, the initial loaf, and the previous 'replication' loaf.
loaf's baking log at
Google Docs link:
478g [Photos]_110623-14305 .pdf -
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_MScoZfDZkwODFlOTk0MDItZDAyMi00ZWVmLTlhYTUtYWE1NjRhNmUxMDc4&hl=en_US [3]
previous 'replication' loaf's baking log at
Google Docs link:
478g[Photos]_110619-1200 .pdf -
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_MScoZfDZkwMmViYjljN2ItMzVjZS00NWE1LWJjZjQtYzg2ZWMxNmIxN2Ew&hl=en_US [4]
initial loaf's baking log
at Google Docs link:
[Photos]_110615-1540 .pdf -
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_MScoZfDZkwMDVmMmVkYWQtNjlmMC00YjVmLTgwMmYtODhlOTM3ZjE4ZDli&hl=en_US [5]
Update - Added Summary Table of the 3 loaves below:
The above table, without a doubt, will have time entry errors of a few percent, but then I would hate being perfect ROFL


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What We Do
The Concord, California office provides operational support for ETS's national and international programs, as well as customized programs for clients in California. This office provides mail fulfillment, call center, operational, scoring, IT, accounting and program management services.
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image from popmatters.com
Release date: 3 August 1973
Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Too High / Visions / Living for the City (11/10/73, #8 US, #15 UK, #1 RB) / Golden Lady / Higher Ground (6/18/73, #4 US, #29 UK, #1 RB, #41 AC) / Jesus Children of America / All in Love Is Fair / Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (4/6/74, #16 US, #2 RB, #9 AC) / He's Misstra Know It All (4/13/74, #10 UK)
Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.08 UK, 6.0 world
Peak: 4 US, 8 UK
Review: "The boy genius comes of age." BL As "the preeminent artist of his era" BL with "a career full of towering achievements" RV and a "plethora of deeply funky soul recordings" WR Innervisions stands as Stevie Wonder's masterpiece." RV This is "the summit of the wunderkind's blend of funk-addled synth-pop and socially conscious lyrics." UT He "dove headfirst into the murky waters of urban America ('Living for the City'), while still finding time for romance with his Golden Lady." VB He "mastered angry, socially conscious, ingenious music that remained danceable." BL
"Introspective, melancholy, sassy and uplifting, it transcends all notions of soul as schmaltz." WR It is "by far his most political work" RV with "songs addressing drugs, spirituality, political ethics, the unnecessary perils of urban life, and what looked to be the failure of the '60s dream – all set within a collection of charts as funky and catchy as any he'd written before." AMG
Living for the City
Living for the City, "an eight-minute mini-epic," AMG is "Wonder's finest moment." RV He "preaches without being preachy about the injustices suffered by the black community, using the microcosm of a Southern boy who visits New York City and gets arrested for drug trafficking. Wonder sings with unbridled emotion and ends the song with the hope that the listeners have learned something." RV "He also uses his variety of voice impersonations to stunning effect." AMG
"Too High is just as stunning, a cautionary tale about drugs driven by a dizzying chorus of scat vocals and a springing bassline." AMG That song and 'Living for the City' "make an especially deep impression thanks to Stevie's narrative talents." AMG
Higher Ground
Higher Ground, a funky follow-up to the previous album's big hit ('Superstition'), and Jesus Children of America both introduced Wonder's interest in Eastern religion. It's a tribute to his genius that he could broach topics like reincarnation and transcendental meditation in a pop context with minimal interference to the rest of the album." AMG
"Wonder also made no secret of the fact that He's Misstra Know-It-All was directed at Tricky Dick, aka Richard Milhouse Nixon, then making headlines (and destroying America's faith in the highest office) with the biggest political scandal of the century." AMG
He's Misstra Know-It-All
Resources and Related Links:
- Stevie Wonder's DMDB Encyclopedia entry
- album page on DMDB website (even more in-depth look at album)
- AMG All Music Guide review by John Bush
- BL Blender Magazine's 100 Greatest American Albums (10/08)
- RV The Review "100 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Clarke Speicher (October – November 2001; Vol. 128: numbers 12-23).
- UT USA Today, Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way (12/5/2003).
- VB Vibe 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century, pp. 154-1964. (Dec. 1999)
- WR The Wire "The 100 Most Important Records Ever Made" (June 1992: #100).


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Opera. Bel canto in Swedish when director Stina Ancker sets Donizetti's beloved opera in a circus environment.
Romantic comedy with Court Singer Elin Rombo
Due to illness, Anton Eriksson will replace Åke Zetterström in the role of Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore on Friday, 24 January.
"A feel-good-opera …" Expressen/Göteborgs-Tidningen
"… irresistibly bubbly …" Sveriges Television
"… a performance, which no doubt everyone leaves in a great mood." Aftonbladet
Watch a film clip from L'elisir d'amore
A travelling quack, Dulcamara, arrives in a little village. His bag is full of miraculous elixirs. Or is it just red wine?
Gawky country boy Nemorino buys a bottle at once and hopes it will enable him to get the self-assured Adina to fall in love with him. Once he has drunk a little "elixir", Nemorino changes. Adina suddenly sees something new in him. Maybe she too will change? With Dulcamara the carnival comes to the village and fills it with magic. Because we find ourselves in a time when a bicycling travelling salesman selling miracle cures could make a difference.
Donizetti s bel canto opera L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) is a musical fireworks display, filled with human warmth, musical sensitivity and lively passion. This charming and eternally young work constantly attracts new interpreters and new audiences. And it is not just from the self-assured Adina that awkward country-boy Nemorino finally draws a tear, but usually also from the audience.
Director Stina Ancker is something of an expert on romantic comedies, and she is returning to us with the same team that was behind West Side Story 2011. We promise a bubbling sense of comedy with a distinct element of the circus.
The opera will be performed in Swedish in a fresh, new translation by Magnus Lindman. In the roles of the principal couple, we see two beautifully melodious young singers on their way out onto the international scene: Elin Rombo and Daniel Johansson. The other principal roles are taken by Fredrik Zetterström/ Markus Schwartz and Åke Zetterström. The conductor is Tobias Ringborg, specialist in the Italian romantic repertoire.
Watch an interview film with the director and cast of L'elisir d'amore
A picture gallery of the cast in make-up
Costume design sketches by Kajsa Larsson
The Elixir of Love – an eternal elixir of life
L'elisir d'amore is one of the most beloved and most performed comic operas ever. By the time of its first performance on a day in May at Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan, Donizetti had had his great international breakthrough barely two years previously. This took place in the same city as the serious opera Anna Bolena, after having written 35 of his 70 operas... He was now 35 years old and some of his best years were yet ahead of him. The opera director at that same theatre was having trouble with another composer, who could not deliver his opera in time, so he approached Donizetti for something to fill the spring season with, but it had to be in a hurry! Once he had secured Italy's leading librettist, Felice Romani, residing in Milan at the time, Donizetti accepted the contract. Lightning speed composing was never a problem for Donizetti – he composed his remaining 35 operas in only thirteen years, before succumbing to syphilis. It took Rossini only three weeks to compose The Barber of Seville, a fact that Donizetti is said to have commented with "well, Rossini was always a bit lazy". According to some sources, Donizetti completed L'elisir d'amore in two weeks, other sources say five.
He was concerned about the theatre's character casting, however. To librettist Romani, he wrote: "We have a German prima donna, a tenor who stutters, a buffo with a voice like a goat and a worthless French basso, still we must cover ourselves with glory. Courage, dear Romani. Hang on – and onwards." And Romani did. He used an existing libretto by Eugène Scribe, Le philtre, which had been performed in Paris the previous year with music by Auber. He altered the characters' names from French to Italian ones, did some slight reworking and presto, a new opera libretto was a fact. This was not an uncommon approach at the time, and there were seldom any intellectual property right disputes.
The story describes events in a small community, and in particular how they unfold for the two main characters Nemorino and Adina, when two strangers arrive at the village. The simple peasant's son Nemorino is completely besotted with the wealthy young landowner Adina, but to no avail. Everything is turned on end by the quack doctor Dulcamara, with his cure-all "elixir of love" (in reality cheap red wine), and the boastful sergeant Belcore, who courts Adina, which ends in the two youths being united.
Donizetti insisted on three insertions to the original text which alter the story, giving it a more serious tone (he was careful to denote his work a comic opera and not an opera buffa, in other words more of an elegant comedy with depth than a farce). The insertions create a sudden dramatic respite where we not only laugh at the characters, but also feel sympathy for them on a more romantic note. Two of them involve Nemorino, who is not a laughing-stock at all, nor just some comical figure, and the third change involves the self-conscious Adina. The first is an addition to the first act finale - Nemorino's sudden heart-felt outburst "Adina, credimi" with his tender plea to Adina to wait just one day before marrying Belcore. Adina joins his melody, which is deliberate and in a minor key, and we begin to divine - perhaps even before she knows it herself - that her heart in fact belongs to Nemorino. The second change is the real show stopper of the opera and its most famous aria - Nemorino's "Una furtiva lagrima" where he has a glimmer of hope and starts to guess that Adina loves him perhaps after all. The third change is Adina's last aria "Prendi, per me sei libero" where she herself has felt a pang of jealousy and begs Nemorino to stay in the village.
Needless to say, the smooth workings of all these small islands of gravity demand an exquisite comical gaiety and merry vocal displays for the rest. And Donizetti's score abounds in this, with not a single dull moment. The musical timing, elegance and comedy are spectacular, a fact which the audience at that first performance in Milan appreciated from the very start. It was a tremendous success, its fame spread rapidly and it has in reality never ceased being performed since that evening in May 1832. The opera made its first appearance in Sweden in Stockholm 1840 and in Gothenburg 1849. The ever critical and pedantic Donizetti toned down his initial harsh opinion of the singers who were part and parcel with the making of this success: he acknowledged that the German soprano Sabine Heinefetter had a lovely voice, Giambattista Genero's Nemorino was "acceptable" while Guiseppe Frezzolini as Dulcamara sounded a bit "pounding". Henri-Bernard Dabadie was the French baritone as Belcore who had in fact also played the same character in Scribe/Auber's opera Le philtre in Paris the year before. Each one of them had touched the magical love potion, whose elixir continues to imbue a fresh sense of vivacity in its audience 180 years later.
Göran Gademan
Recommendations from the Opera Shop
L'elisir d'Amore
Complete recording with Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti in top form.
2 CDs - SEK 179
L'elisir d'Amore
Critically-acclaimed recording from Vienna with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon in the main roles.
NB. Currently out of stock


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You'll enjoy a restful sleep
Supremely comfortable … A room at SC Park offers the quiet and friendly atmosphere, your guest room or suite is designed to motivate with the surrounding environment, while ensuring your comfort and convenience.
Rest assured,The SC Park Hotel has thought of everything. With rooms equipped to accommodate guests with special needs, individual climate control, international direct telephone and fully stocked mini-bar. The SC Park Hotel is ready to meet your every need.Read More


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Artist Profile: Wickerham & Lomax
The latest in a series of interviews with artists whose work makes use of or responds to network culture and digital technologies.
Wickerham & Lomax, BOY'Dega: Encore in the AFTALYFE (Season 2) (2014).
JG: DUOX started as a collaboration between the two of you, and collaboration seems completely central to your practice even though you're now working under the name Wickerham & Lomax. You've worked closely with DIS Magazine and other high-profile sponsors, and even the feel of your new work seems deliberately corporate and commercial. What is the shape and direction of this collaboration? Where did DUOX end, and how does Wickerham & Lomax extend?
Lomax: I think aside from using the language of surface which is one of our subjects—appearances, mirrors, screens, reflections, storefronts, sheen—we employ the language of accessibility, and that gets foregrounded explicitly in corporate and commercial imagery which isn't really an idea we investigate but an aesthetic we employ. I think the corporate and commercial for us is really a mask, not an interest.
Virtual Bodies and Empty Signifiers: On Fred Parke and Miley Cyrus
Still frame from Fred Parke, Faces, University of Utah, 1974.
On June 19 of this past year Miley Cyrus released a video for "We Can't Stop," the lead single for her fourth studio alum Bangers (2013). Directed by Diane Martel, the video was the first step in a massive rebranding effort by the young singer, who has transformed herself from a Disney teen starlet into a bad-girl human Tumblr. The video largely consists of the young star partying with friends, intercut with a number of visual non-sequiturs that resemble scrolling through the popular microblogging platform. The video, album, and subsequent MTV video music awards performance have sparked a number of interesting debates online and in popular press concerning sexuality, race, and appropriation. Watching the video for the first time, I was shocked, though not at the twerking or the tongue or the dancing bears. "Did you see that?" I yelled as I paused the video. "I think that was the CGI face from Fred Parke's 1974 University of Utah dissertation research." And it was.
A Queer History of Computing, Part Five: Messages from the Unseen World
This marks the fifth and final installment in a genealogy of queer computing (Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four).
Note from Alan Turing to Robin Gandy, March 1954.
Born in London in 1949, Andrew Hodges attended Cambridge University from 1967 to 1971, where he trained as a mathematician. While there, he encountered the work of Alan Turing for the first time, learning of his significant contributions to the history of mathematical logic—though not of his homosexuality.
A Queer History of Computing: Part Four
In Part Four of our ongoing genealogy of queer computing (Part One, Part Two, Part Three), we introduce a second generation of queer scholars who made important contributions to the field of computer science, and from whom we may trace a direct connection back to those familiar foundational figures.
On June 20, 2009 at 4pm at The Hampstead Quaker Meeting House in London, a memorial service was held for Professor Peter Landin. In attendance were his family and the friends whose lives he had touched over the last 78 years. It was a collision of worlds, a sudden mixing of two communities that Landin had kept separate his entire life. Landin's friend and colleague Olivier Danvy likened the event to the memorial for the French mathematical logician Jean van Heijenoort, author of From Frege to Gödel (1967).[1] In the early part of his life, van Heijenoort had been the personal secretary and bodyguard of Leon Trotsky, the famous Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army. Van Heijenoort left service only two months before Trotsky's murder in Mexico City by Stalinist assassins, but was a devout Trotskyist until his death, publishing extensively on his relationship with the revolutionary figure and editing a volume of Trotsky's correspondence before his own death in 1986. In attendance at van Heijenoort's funeral, Danvy recalls, were two disparate groups of people: on one side the logicians, and on the other the Trotskyists, each one incapable of communicating their own sense of importance of the man to the other.
Peter Landin had also led something of a double life. He was a foundational figure in computer science, and a pioneer of programming language design based on mathematical logic and the Lambda calculus. He was ...


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My sweet Daddy served our country in the Navy during WW11 and now on Memorial Day Weekend I wanted to honor him.
A while back he attended an Outdoorsman Venue and he visited a Veterans booth where he put his name in a drawing to win a FREE fishing excursion - something he has been wanting for a long time. After a couple weeks he received the call that said his name was drawn for a salmon fishing trip! He was so excited and couldn't wait to tell me about it. A week ago on a brisk, early, Saturday morning he joined some other Veterans for this fun fishing day. I was at Mom's when he called and I got to hear the excitement in his voice when he told me that he just pulled in a BIG Salmon that took him 10-15 minutes to land. That stubborn salmon ended up being 14.5 pounds! (The largest salmon caught that day was 17 pounds.)
It was a great day for him as he was able to share this event with other Veterans and I am sure there were stories shared. My Daddy was the oldest Veteran that day to join the fishing excursion so he was awarded an American Flag that flew over Michigan's Capital Building on April 4, 2014 (he even has the documented papers for it)
Today on this Memorial Day Weekend Sunday, this beautiful flag, that holds so much meaning, is hanging on a wall at my parents church.
I am so proud of my Daddy! My dad was on the USS Harry F Bauer DM26, a destroyer Mine Layer which was used in mine sweeping operations.
Thank you Daddy for serving our country! You make us proud!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful Memorial Day!
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Sentimental Sunday
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Posted by Christi at 2:00 AM
Labels: Sentimental Sunday
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Suspect arrested in stabbing of Capitol police officer
A 25-year-old West Allis man was arrested Wednesday night in the stabbing of a Capitol police officer at the Milwaukee State Office Building at Sixth and Wells streets.
Investigators said the officer was stabbed while responding to a threat on the fourth floor around 1 p.m.
"When officers responded, they were confronted by a subject, a male. One officer was stabbed in the neck," Capitol police Officer Dan Blackdeer said.
The officer, 66, was taken to Froedtert Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He is in stable condition.
Family members told WISN 12 News that Officer Greg Friberg was the man stabbed. He is a 10-year veteran of the Capitol Police Department.
Milwaukee police are the leading the investigation.
"At this time, this does not appear that this incident is an act of random violence," Milwaukee Police Department Assistant Chief Edith Hudson said.
The family said it needs time to understand exactly what happened to Frieberg inside the building.
The state office building was closed for the rest of the day Wednesday, but Milwaukee police said it should be open Thursday.
"Our thoughts are with our injured Capitol police officer, and we are thankful that he is in stable condition. We are also thinking about all of our officers who put themselves in harm's way each day, and ask that you send your thoughts to everyone involved in this situation," said Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch in a statement.
According to Capitol police, no other people were hurt.


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In regard to enjoying the three best shows on television, my husband Martin and I came late to the party.
The first one, the situation comedy Seinfeld, is petite amusement which we still quote liberally, and often. For years, we were asked by friends and family, "Why don't you watch Seinfeld?"
Our answers were: "We're too tired raising the kids to watch TV" or "Now that it's been on a couple of years, it's too late for us to enjoy it."
Not only did we get hooked on the show when it was live on NBC, we also gobbled up the episodes in syndication. Our by then 'tween kids knew whole episodes by heart. In fact, when we were invited onto the set of Seinfeld to watch one of its very last episodes being filmed, my daughter, only eleven at the time, had the between-scenes moderator in stitches because she was the first to raise her hand with answers to all his trivia questions.
"What is she, a midget?" he asked us incredulously. "She's not old enough to know all the shows!"
She still treasures the Seinfeld t-shirt she won that day.
The second show we almost missed entirely was hawked by one of my pals here on Murder She Writes. K-Tab would tell me, "I can't believe you don't watch Rescue Me! In fact, I'll loan you the first season on DVD."
She was right. We got hooked on Denis Leary's bittersweet vision of life in a New York City firehouse immediately after 911. His character, Tommy Gavin, sees the ghosts of firemen friends past as he attempts to assuage his guilt for not having died with them. Pathos is liberally dosed with laughs, and characters are so well written and acted. And when Leary and his writing/producing partner, Peter Tolan, are on their game, the dialogue is Shakespearean. If you missed it when the show was on the air, it's certainly worth 'Flixing the DVDs.
Which brings me to the best dramatic series ever to be aired on television: The Wire. What makes it so great–and what makes it like no other police procedural ever produced for broadcast–is its adherence to the gritty realities of life on the street corners run by drug dealers.
The Wire's genius was to move the viewer beyond that one very colorful but singularly dimensional side of drug trafficking's Rubik Cube and onto its other sides–national, state and city politics; the local police administration; schools politics and policies; union corruption; and the local media. They too are just as fascinating and disgusting, to viewers; and just as important to see, if viewers are to understand how drug trafficking works, and why this scourge on our society may never be eradicated.
Or, in the words of one of the show's most popular character, Police Detective Lester Freamon, "All the pieces matter."
Simon embedded the show's viewers into the halls of justice (and injustice). They were privy to police department cutbacks and politics as well as rogue cop shenanigans. They saw why politically motivated school policies fail.
After each episode, my husband, who worked in public affairs for the New York Police Department, would shake his head and say, "I've worked with every cop portrayed in this show. This is what it's really like."
For the rest of us, ignorance is bliss. If only real life were CSI and Castle! But it's not. Producer David Simon's pedigree as a Baltimore Sun street beat reporter gave him both the experience to present it as it truly is, and the to chops to write true-to-life characters with dialogue that is fresh and real.
For five too short/too fast seasons, anyway.
Without seeing all sides, our visions of what woulda/coulda/shoulda would have been skewed, and screwed.
Here's the thing: as an author, I am always in awe of other writers who, no matter their medium, can capture the truth in a situation, and then bring it to life for others. I respect those who aren't afraid to mix indigo and alabaster into a rainbow of gray tones that cast light into the shadows of time, place, circumstance, and action no matter how sad, horrifying or disgusting that truth may be.
Because that's just damn good writing.
Yep, all the pieces matter.
Enjoy the following video clip is a trailer from the first season of The Wire.
Do you have a favorite television show that you feel is so well written that it's a classic? Tell me about it, below…
*Picture: The actors in the Baltimore Police unit that set up "The Wire", in which to listen in on, and stop, drug traffickers.


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Laura's memories
Mansfield community recounts the stories of famous hometown author
During the grand finale of the dress rehearsal, the entire cast playing the Ingalls family, including Almanzo, ends the performance with a bow. For 20 years, the community of Mansfield has performed "Laura's Memories," a musical about hometown author Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Men garbed in bib overalls and women in their prairie dresses hold hands, dancing to the tune Pa plays on his fiddle, while the younger ones savor the warm maple syrup at Grandpa's log cabin.
And that's only one of Laura's memories from this Little House on the Prairie production.
Ozark Mountain Players (OMP) in Mansfield has featured just one musical for two decades. But what started out as a modest production has matured into a pageant-like performance fueled by the community and viewed by an international audience.
This fall, the production company celebrates the 20th anniversary of "Laura's Memories," a musical that shares the memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for writing the famous "Little House" series of eight books based on her pioneer life.
Wilder lived 60 years of her life in southern Missouri and considered Mansfield her home. Her Missouri cottage is now preserved as a historical museum, and "Laura's Memories" is another way the community continues to honor their famed pioneer.
Nellie, played by Bailey Adams, glares at her brother Willie, who stole her hand mirror. Bailey has been in the production for four years, making it easy for her to slip into character on the first night of dress rehearsal.
Staying true to the books and time period, playwright Terry Spyres of Springfield fleshes out the stories and memories told by Wilder in the "Little House" collection and includes much of the original dialogue Wilder penned in her books.
"The television series took a lot of liberties, but I wanted this to be more authentic," she says. "I need to stay true to Laura."
Spyres admits to taking some freedoms with Harriet Oleson, the store owner's haughty wife, to show more of the character's pompous nature and to add humor to the production.
The outdoor drama, powered by Se-Ma-No Electric Cooperative, has attracted a worldwide audience, including a group from Japan, which visited Mansfield to see the homestead of the Little House author and main character in the popular TV series "Little House on the Prairie."
But there is also a more loyal following. An Amish community from northern Arkansas has seen the show mature since its beginning. They travel to Mansfield every year on a pickup bed trailer pulled by a tractor.
The OMP fills the amphitheater with as many as 500 people each Wilder Day, and as a commemoration to the show's long-running success, the non-profit production company will honor former cast members at each summer and fall performance.
Viewers watching this season's rendition will walk through Wilder's childhood years, opening with Grandpa's Dance, the famed story of making maple syrup from the first book "Little House in the Big Woods," and ending with Laura and Almanzo Wilder moving to their Mansfield home.
Corbin Allen, Jordan Hodges, Conner Johnson, Wyatt Rau, Hunter Brinkley and Dylan Hodges play tug-of-war before the school scene. While the farmer boys are in every scene, they are featured in a song and dance, inspired by Wilder's book Farmer Boy, before the show.
The upcoming production has 80 cast members from the community and surrounding areas, many of whom include entire families who have grown up with the show. One cast member is a grandma with her two daughters and six grandchildren in the show. Luke Johnson of Mansfield, who produces sound effects and sings in the pre-show quartet, started as one of the farmer boys 18 years ago. Today, his 8-year-old son fills the role.
"Laura's Memories" is set in the 1950s, where Wilder recollects her childhood memories as an adult. Over the years, the performance has been restructured several times.
Spyres and music composer Pat Allen originally wrote the script and songs for the musical when Spyres, new to the Mansfield community at the time, realized Wilder lived her remaining years in the southern Missouri town.
As longtime fans of Wilder's books, the drama duo decided to write a musical featuring their favorite scenes from the Little House collection.
The two worked side by side, playing off each other's ideas, and in a month, the musical was finished.
After losing their beloved dog, Jack, on the trail to their new home on the prairie, Laura and Mary Ingalls pray for his return as their younger sister sleeps. The role of baby Carrie is double cast, so during the dress rehearsal, both girls were on stage and out of costume.
"It only had four scenes," Spyres jokes. "It was so short we had to pad it with pre-show entertainment."
Grandpa's Dance was in the original script, and the show ended with the revival where Almanzo begins courting Laura.
The immediate success of "Laura's Memories" prompted Spyres and Allen to expand and perfect the production. Throughout the years, they rewrote and added scenes to introduce more characters, such as Harriet Oleson, but, more importantly, they wanted to bring Laura and Almanzo back to Mansfield.
Spyres worked on the musical's dialogue and structure, and Allen contributed to the composition of songs that both filled the new scenes and featured vocally skilled cast members.
"We utilize all our talents," Allen says. "Our cast has grown tremendously over the years, and we tweak or add things each year depending on our cast, the person we would like to feature or the song or verse we would like to add for them."
Johnson, who has been involved in all but the first two performances, attests to the musical's growth. "Every couple years, they come up with something new to add to the play," he says. "It's more of a production than it was in the beginning."
He even remembers setting up square bales, which served as the seating for each performance, on the hill side several years ago. Now, the production is hosted in an amphitheater, including custom-built bleachers, constructed specifically for the show.
Directors Terry Spyres, Cindy Lawson and Pat Allen discuss the opening scene before the start of dress rehearsal. With 20 to 30 cast members on stage at simultaneously, planning is vital to the flow of the production.
Allen and Spyres provided the framework for the production, but the show's opulence is a community-wide effort. For the playwright and composer, it's a family affair.
With the help of costume designer Dot Hudson of Mansfield, who sewed most of the prairie girl dresses, all cast members perform in authentic, pioneer wear. Seamstress Donis Elliott also has patched and designed costumes, while her husband, Floyd, Duke Dunbar and Jeffery Hutchens built the bleachers at no charge.
The director's family members have been involved in musical production since the beginning. Allen's son, Eric, wrote the song Laura sings on the trail. Spyres' husband directed "Laura's Memories" the year the two women took a break, and her three children filled various roles and helped with the production's development by writing songs or suggesting new scenes.
Spyres remembers her son, Sean, suggesting that she write another school scene for the performance. Her daughter, Erica, helped her write Mrs.Oleson's song about Nellie.
But no matter their role, the community members connected to the musical have a different attachment. For Sean Spyres, who returns for the 15th year to play Alamanzo, the songs in the musical foster a nostalgia. For OMP Publicist Phillip Bennett, "Laura's Memories" is a tribute to the valued community member of whom he met years ago.
"I can't say enough about this community," Bennett said. "We couldn't have this show without them."
Show details: Performance Dates: Aug. 6, 7, 13 and 14; Sept. 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18. Begins at 8 p.m. Wilder Day: Wilder Day is Sept. 18. A special matinee performance will begin at 3 p.m. Admission: Adults (12 and over) $7 and children (5-11) $3. Directions: The amphitheater is located next to the ball park and elementary school on Ohio Avenue. Contact Info: 417-924-3383; www.laurasmemories.com
Erin Stubblefied is Rural Missouri's 2010 summer intern.


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Mike Davis
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I want to do a few carved knives in the near future. I was curious if there is any interest in this. I want to do a few that look flint knapped and maybe a few more intricate style designs. I understand the cleaning issues, that is why i figured i would inquire. I am finally getting my shop back into some semblance of order, and am setting up a carving station. If you think this is a dumb idea, please say so.


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May 2, 2005
Joshua Grant, has summer job working for Public Broadcasting System, taking a summer class at Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne; Tim Rickard, will be working roofing and construction at home in Valparaiso; Brian Deyo, going to Ocean City, N.J., for 8-week Campus Crusade for Christ Missions trip, and working construction; Phillip Merriett, will work at Ben Hur Stables, Crawfordsville, training for riding competitions, and training horses; Kyle O'Keefe , summer includes plans to swim a lot, was seeking on-campus internship; Chris Haskell, has a family trip to Fiji, but will work at Keresotes Movie Theaters in Indianapolis; Jared Lange, working in Terre Haute warehouse business; Kyle Trusgnich, working at home for a landscape material distributor in Crown Point; Homer Twigg, working at Puccini's Restaurant in Indy; Daniel Sutton, will be working at Americana Banks in New Castle, also plans trips to Tennessee and Michigan; Alex Nolan, has internship in chemistry department with Dr. LePlae.
Kyle Whisler, working labor for Danville plumbing company, playing baseball for Crawfordsville Eagles; Cory Norman, internship in chemistry with Dr. LePlae; Paco de la Rosa, working in Lebanon doing lawn care, plans summer trips to Canada and Florida; Michael Heighway, finding job in Indy, hopefully picking up a physics course; Nick Lyons, plans to workout a lot for football, play baseball and work construction; Andrew Newkirk, "getting dirty" working for Shelbyville Parks and Recreation Department; Barton Bridge, working for Indianapolis' Hapak & Mayflower Moving; Seth Baxter, will be working construction with planned road trips to New York City and Tennessee; Emmanuel Valme, planning on taking some summer school classes; Neal Monroe, studying in Wabash's Ecuador Program and working on Relay for Riley sponsorship; Kyle Luth, working for Home City Ice Company in Attica, his manager there is a Wabash grad; Joshua Day, has a Englishton Park internship that he learned about from Professor Bankart. He will be a teacher/counselor for children with various psychological disorders; Bryan Tyler Engh, working in family restaurant in Indianapolis; Aaron Parrish, hopes to land a job at an area radio station near his Covington home; Jeremy Paul, will be traveling the country building lofts on college campuses, the job may also include a trip to Guam for similar work.
Dave Coddens, will be painting for one of the summer college student painting companies; Matt Maher, will be working on his family farm in Howard County; Eric Carroll, will be living with an uncle in Ann Arbor, Michigan, playing in a collegiate wooden bat baseball league and working an internship at Tokico, a Japanese car parts manufacturer; Thomas Baughman, will be working on his family farm near Brownstown; Torm Hustvet, participating in the summer Ecuador program; Derek Woods, seeking job in hometown area of Greentown, Ind.; William Rendfeld, working at a Toys R Us in Indy; Jesse Jay James, will be returning for his second year as a mentor at a day camp for children in his hometown of Sullivan, Ind.; Trayton Blake White, doing on-campus chemistry research with Dr. Porter; Brandon Stewart, will be working with his church in Missouri in its Summer Vacation Bible Study program; Rodney Frederick, will have a YMCA internship at Camp Carson. He will be a dirt bike activity director; John Chuang; will travel to Taiwan to study in a cultural heritage program and learning Chinese; Robert Morgan, has plans to work informally with his family doctor and surgeon, will also work for a Monrovia excavation company; Eric Eder, was unsure of summer plans but said it's most likely he'd be home in Texas working at Home Depot.
Jared Conaway, will be working with a catering firm in Brazil, South Amerida; Luke Odom, was hoping to land a position at a Chicago area law firm, but also had plans to start a backyard water garden business with a pledge brother;Adrian Pynenberg, planned to return home to Montgomery, Ill., and work in a factory or local parks district; Ndeto Mwose, will be on campus participating in the business immersion program; Austin Faulkner, will join his father in the family book-binding business. They travel Indiana's northern most 50 counties fixing old books in county courthouses; Drew Howk, was waiting word on a two different internships; Jason Siegel, runs a lawn care business in Fort Wayne; Bryce Chitwood, working for Victory Junction Camp, a children's camp for kids with life-threatening illnesses supported by many NASCAR regulars; P.J. Smith, will be attending Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va.; Josh Harris, will be working as an intern in Harold's Clothing Store in Oklahoma City, he may also attend two different leadership seminars for his fraternity; John Kasey, will be a lifeguard/manager at an Evansville swimming pool, climbing Grand Teton, competing in two triathlons and rafting the Colorado River; Barrett Ludy, will be working for an investment banker in Fort Wayne; Deborshi Seal, will be spending time at home in India, was unsure of his summer work plans,
Steve Hernandez, will take some summer classes at Butler or IUPUI and find summer employment John Tsintis, will do volunteer work at a hospital in his home town of Dyer, Ind., and later in summer join family for vacation in Greece; Brandon Hazelton, has an internship in the Warren Township Assessors Office in Indianapolis; Clinton Happe, working at Wabash Plastics in Evansville, a company owned by John C. Schroeder '69; Chandler Troy, will be working at Riley Children's camp in Southern Indiana; Nick Leon , will be participating in the Summer Ecuador program and attending fraternity leadership school in Las Vegas; Steve Miller, will be doing research in Martinsville with a cardiovascular surgeon from Riley Children's Hospital; Aaron Spolarich, will teach/coach young swimmers in the Merrillville H.S. swim program; Alex Goga, intern with Wabash's Computer Services and do office work for the Crawfordsville Art League; J.P. Patterson, participating in the Summer Business Immersion Program; Joseph H. Hake, on campus interning in the Present Indiana Project; Max Bader, will return to hometown of Middlebury and work in his high school as a cook, also was exploring internship with sports medicine center; Mark Ellis, working for the second summer with an electrical contractor in Indy; Twining Campbell, returning home to Pasadena, Calif, seeking employment; Baron Hewetson, working in the statehouse offices of the Governor and Lt. Governor.


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Latest Innovations. Subspecialty Care. Strength in Patient Follow-Up
Constipation is a condition in which a person experiences difficult or infrequent bowel movements. Generally, a person is considered to be constipated when bowel movements result in passage of small amounts of hard, dry stool, usually fewer than three times a week, but this is only a very approximate standard. Nearly everyone experiences constipation at one time or another. However, there is no standard number of bowel movements per day or per week that is normal. The point at which persons are constipated differs for each individual according to his or her normal bowel habits are patterns. Some people also naturally have stool with a firmer consistency than others.
Constipation is the most common significant gastrointestinal complaint, experienced by millions of people in the U.S. every year and resulting in millions of physician visits. Constipation can cause complications such as hemorrhoids, which occur as a result of muscular straining during bowel movement, or anal fissures (tears in the skin around the anus) that occur when hard stool stretches the sphincter muscle. This can result in rectal bleeding.
Sometimes, straining also causes rectal prolapse, where a small amount of intestinal lining pushes out from the anal opening. Constipation may also cause fecal impaction, which occurs mostly in children and older adults. The hard stool packs the intestine and rectum so tightly that the normal pushing action of the colon is not enough to expel the stool.
Causes/risk factors
Hard, dry stools are the result of the colon absorbing too much water out of the fecal matter. Normally, as food moves through the colon (also known as the large intestine) the intestinal wall absorbs water while forming stool (waste products). Muscle contractions then push the stool toward the rectum, and, by the time the stool reaches the rectum, most of the water has been absorbed, making the stool solid.
When the colon's muscle contractions are slow or sluggish, the stool moves through the colon too slowly, resulting in too much water being absorbed. The removed water and the muscular contractions of the colon cause the stool to become compressed and thus harder. Compacted stool can also result from systemic dehydration. Other factors that can contribute to constipation include:
- medications;
- lack of exercise;
- not enough fiber in the diet;
- irritable bowel syndrome;
- ignoring the urge to have a bowel movement;
- changes in habits or lifestyle, such as travel, pregnancy, and old age;
- problems with intestinal function;
- dysfunction of pelvic muscles
- hormonal disturbances;
- neurologic, metabolic/endocrine, or system diseases;
- abuse of laxatives.
Constipation is more common in women, children, and older adults. It is also a complaint associated with pregnancy.
Signs & symptoms
Common symptoms of constipation are:
- difficult and painful bowel movements;
- bowel movements less often than three times a week;
- feeling bloated or uncomfortable in the lower abdomen;
- pain or cramping in the abdomen;
- feeling sluggish.
In addition to a medical history and physical examination, diagnostic procedures for constipation can include the following:
- abdominal x-ray;
- barium, lower-GI x-ray (lower GI series or barium enema);
- and colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy.
Acute, sudden stoppage of bowel movements may need quick medical evaluation and intervention. Most constipation, however, is of a milder, chronic, intermittent type.
Most often, constipation can be treated through dietary and lifestyle changes, which relieve symptoms and help prevent the condition. Treatment may include:
- diet modifications. A diet with 20 to 35 grams of fiber daily helps in forming soft, bulky stool. Adding foods such as beans, whole grains, bran cereals, fresh fruits, and vegetables is helpful for increasing fiber to the diet. Limiting foods such as ice cream, cheeses, meats, and processed foods, which contain little or no fiber can also be helpful.
- lifestyle changes. Increased water and juice intake, regular exercise, and allowing enough time for daily bowel movements can also help to mitigate constipation.
- laxatives. Your doctor may prescribe laxatives if diet and lifestyle changes have not produced adequate relief of symptoms. These may be bulk-forming laxatives, lubricant laxatives, emollient (stool softening) laxatives, or stimulant laxatives, among others.
- eliminating or changing medication.
- biofeedback. This technique treats chronic constipation caused by anorecta dysfunction. Biofeedback is a technique for retraining the muscles that control release of stool.
For an impacted bowel that does not resolve with noninvasive steps, a medical enema is sometimes necessary.


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Flooding in Central South Dakota This Week. You're Kidding, Right?
I saw a blip about it, then I forgot about it. Then the blip showed up again. Flooding in Lyman County in South Dakota.
I keep a pretty close eye on news items. And I keep a pretty close eye on the weather. So when I saw the news, Flooding in Lyman County in South Dakota, it caught my eye.
According to Keloland.com
Flooding in Lyman County is making roads difficult to maneuver Monday night.
The rest of the state is still pretty dry. If you ask anyone in agriculture almost anywhere in South Dakota and they'll tell you. We're dry and praying for moisture. So when I heard of the blip again, I thought I better check.
You know it's possible. If you remember several years ago, Sioux Falls sat smack dab under a storm that wouldn't move. It just kept raining in that one area. So, it can and does happen. Still I wondered.
I messaged my sister Crystal. I knew she was probably up getting ready for work with Shawn and Nancy on in the background. Sure enough, I got a reply. It's a pretty good small town reply.
She said,
The rain just kept coming. From the pics it looks like a stock dam overflowed into a draw then across the road. Just southeast of Kennebec.
From what I heard it was just north of Cliff Halverson's Lodge.
She went on to say, Doug and Kate Halverson couldn't get out of their yard.
No tragedies but Doug couldn't come to town for coffee.
As I write this post I can't help thinking, 'I kind of miss small town living.' And some of the small town news that goes along with it.
According to the Lyman County Facebook Page, the waters have subsided and roads are open again.


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(photo by: Clifford Coonan-independent.co.uk)
What do you get when you cross rebellious Chinese artist Ai WeiWei with the most popular mode of transportation in his native country?
An art installation made of over 760 bicycles…so radical.
The project is being shown in San Gimignano, Italy at the Galleria Continua.
Images from the […]


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Producers are looking to take further advantage of low natural gas prices in the US, which enables the significant expansion of methane-based projects.
- Many segments continue to enjoy the cost advantage of shale gas
- Impact of the new administration´s economic policies remains to be seen
- Payments take between 30 and 90 days on average
US chemicals production grew 1.6% in 2016, and is expected to increase 3.6% in 2017 and 4.8% in 2018, as many subsectors continue to enjoy the cost advantage of shale gas. The US has moved from being a high-cost producer of key petrochemicals and resins in the past to being the world's second lowest cost producer.
Exports of US chemicals linked to shale gas are projected to reach USD 123 billion by 2030. Chemical producers are clearly looking to take further advantage of continued low natural gas prices in the US, which is enabling the significant expansion of methane-based projects. Currently the US is a major importer of methanol, but by 2018 it will be a net exporter of this substance - a significant shift for the US chemicals industry.
Like other US industries, the chemicals sector is still waiting for further clarification of the economic policy under President Trump. While corporate tax cuts would benefit many businesses across all US sectors, any economic stimulus policy that would boost economic performance would have a positive impact on the chemicals industry in 2018, as annual US chemicals demand growth usually exceeds year-on-year GDP growth. The large infrastructure improvements announced by the new administration (but still subject to Congressional approval) would widely benefit US chemical businesses providing polymers, coatings, adhesives, solvents and other materials used in the construction industry. The easing of energy and environmental regulations would also have a positive impact on the chemicals industry.
However, there are also some potential downside risks related to President Trump´s economic policy course. Potential taxes on imports could find US chemicals businesses paying more for feedstocks and negatively impacting supply chains. Protectionist US trade policies - followed by retaliatory measures by trade partners - would hit the US chemicals industry heavily, given its substantial trade surplus (Mexico alone accounts for more than half of the US chemicals trade surplus).
Profit margins of US chemicals businesses are generally stable, and the amount of protracted payments in this sector is low. On average, payments in the chemicals industry take between 30 and 90 days. The number of insolvencies is low compared to other industries, and is expected to remain so in 2017 consistent with improving demand for chemicals.
Our underwriting approach to the chemicals sector remains generally positive to neutral. As the sector is highly fragmented and dependent on the broader economy and input costs, we scrutinise single subsector trends and end-markets. We continue to focus on the financial strength of buyers as the volatile price environment settles at what appears to be the bottom, with some price volatility seen in Q1 of 2017 associated with the implementation of the new US administration.
Our underwriting approach remains cautious for the energy and fuel/oil subsector, especially for smaller and local players in this segment. We closely monitor liquidity and business outlooks for public and private buyers in this subsector. We also closely monitor US chemicals companies that do business in countries where the local currency has significantly devalued against the USD.